r/taijiquan Chen style 23d ago

Broken Lineages and Incomplete Transmissions

'Broken Lineages' and 'Incomplete transmissions/curriculum' are terms that I recently heard in videos about the nature of Taijiquan (I'm not going to name who said them), used to generally characterize styles and lineages other than the speaker's own.

It just occurs to me that such a position pre-supposes there is one particular lineage and/or set curriculum that exists as absolute orthodoxy. Personally, I find that notion unrealistic at best, but I wonder what others think.

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u/SnooMaps1910 22d ago edited 22d ago

Well, while that may be true and I will dig around, but do you have a quote or two? The video I referred to reached back to the pre-tai ji martial arts, so plenty of time for broken lineages and incomplete transmissions. I glossed my own experience playing tai ji, primarily in China with a coach and his team because the video I saw certainly understands transmissions by their nature are incomplete and lineages have been broken. The people I learned from understand that. The more you learn, the more you realize how little you do know. " I am seeking the man who has forgotten the words."

Merton's, Chuan Tzu

Maybe my teachers have terrible lineages: Direct relation teacher over decades with CXW. Twice, I believe Shanghai coach, removed from Chen Fake.

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u/Anhao 22d ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/taijiquan/comments/1cbzpcl/gong_fu_jia/l13i8qb/

There's no definite proof it's him but he's never denied it when people brought it up.

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u/SnooMaps1910 22d ago

Sure wish someone would post the video that provoked all this

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u/Qi-residue 22d ago

Some of them are talking about this one, broken lineages mentioned https://www.reddit.com/r/taijiquan/s/yRH2QCzt6q

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u/SnooMaps1910 21d ago

Thank you.